Posted
by
CmdrTacoon Sunday June 15, 2003 @11:35AM
from the no-jokes-about-getting-laid-please dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a "smart brick" which can monitor a building's health and report its conditions wirelessly. "This innovation could change the face of the construction industry," said Chang Liu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois. "We are living with more and more smart electronics all around us, but we still live and work in fairly dumb buildings. By making our buildings smarter, we can improve both our comfort and safety." Built into a wall, these bricks could monitor a building's temperature, vibration and movement. Such information could be vital to firefighters battling a blazing skyscraper, or to rescue workers ascertaining the soundness of an earthquake-damaged structure. These researchers also think these devices could help monitoring nurseries, daycares and senior homes. You'll find more details in this summary."

If they were really smart bricks, they would escape from the construction site before getting laid in the wall. But I guess you should still stop using this expression, as you're probably overusing it anyway.

"In the gaming industry, wireless sensors attached to a personâ(TM)s arms and legs could replace the conventional joystick and allow a âcouch potatoâ(TM) to get some physical exercise while playing video games such as basketball or tennis."

I get it. Sort of like if they got off the couch and played the actual sport. Uh...